In this series, Navigate the Cash Crunch, I’ll share strategies and provide meaningful insights around what you can do right now to navigate the cash crunch and extend your runway.
If you want a sneak peek, go to navigatethecashcrunch.com to gain instant access to the free training and templates.
I asked my Assistant Sarah to come up with a list of 100+ tasks she’s done for me.
Too often Entrepreneurs LOVE the idea of a great Assistant, but then get stumped when it comes to actually delegating.
Pretty tough to have an Assistant take over the bottom-80% of your workload, AND babysit those 317 projects you started last quarter, when you can’t even define the first five.
GOOD NEWS: Sarah and I have a shortcut for you…
Sarah’s overall list of 100+ tasks was huge and required a PDF.
So I’ve included the first 20-30 below, and if you want the rest, just throw your name and email into the box below and we’ll email you the 100+ BEAST.
OK, here we go…
For over a year Sarah’s been handling this for me. I’m amazed with how FREE I feel. It was excruciating to hand over the keys to the kingdom, but now I realize how silly I was being. Now I wish I woulda done it years earlier.
Sarah handles:
Intellectually, you know your business needs systems, procedures, checklists. But anytime you’ve tried to start, it’s been excruciating and a waste of time. Good news: the right Assistant thrives on this kind of thing!
Sarah handles:
Most Business Owners have a love-hate relationship with Infusionsoft. It’s powerful, BUT it’s got a steep learning curve that takes time to learn. It’s expensive. And if you have to hire someone to build and manage it for you, it’s gonna be $40/hr or more. But not anymore, Assistant to the rescue!
Sarah handles:
As you can see, Sarah isn’t establishing the overarching strategy.
Our marketing Manager and I still handle overall strategy, then Sarah takes that vision and builds it out in Infusion.
You’ll also notice Sarah isn’t trained on 100% of Infusion.
But that’s totally OK!
There’s really only about 3-4 tasks that make up 80% of Infusion work (probably: add a contact, setup a sequence, send an email broadcast). So Sarah started with just that.
Then, as time went on, she picked up more and more skills on the fly. Now she can handle around 80% of Infusion, and virtually never gets stumped.
That’s all just the tip of the iceberg.
Sarah’s list of 100+ tasks also includes:
OK… this is getting really long. I’ll summarize even more tightly:
If you’d like to see the full, 100+ list of tasks (in PDF), throw your name and email in here and we’ll send it to you right away…
Hope that helps!
Tim :)
Email is a massive drain on productivity for Entrepreneurs. It’s time to fight back!
Below I share how I’ve cracked the code and now enjoy phenomenal email freedom.
I’ve helped other entrepreneurs do the same, including a few famous guys including Andrew Warner, founder of Mixergy.com:
“Tim finally solved my email inbox. I’ve tried everything else – helpdesk software, shutting off email with an autoresponder (people were really pissed), and I considered secret second email inboxes and none of it worked. Until I used Tim’s advice, and now I’m finally free.” – Andrew Warner
Here’s what I told Andrew…
First, you must trust your Assistant.
You *do* have an Assistant, right? They’re more affordable than you think.
Trust takes time. Wouldn’t make it the first task I delegated to a new Assistant; in fact, I’d probably wait 6-12 months, *and* do a criminal record check, *and* references, *and* sign a confidentiality agreement.
This is one of the reasons I only hire USA / CAN Executive Assistants – the laws are similar, and the legal systems are too. And I could hunt someone down if I really needed to.
Also, make sure you’re using Google Apps / Gmail. If you aren’t, switch over immediately – you are extremely late to the party. Every day you aren’t on Google Apps, you are missing out on a massive productivity jump. Ditch Outlook, your PC, and 1995… it’s time for Google Apps.
Run Unroll.me to get rid of 95% of email subscriptions (except from: Ryan Levesque of course!). There’s no sense making your Assistant repeatedly delete unwanted emails. As many outsourcing experts say, “ELIMINATE – Automate – Delegate.” Eliminate as many recurring emails as you can before handing over to Assistant. If you’re worried about privacy, immediately unsubscribe from Unroll.me afterwards.
In Gmail / Google Apps, create a “! – Tim Review” label. The “!” makes it appear at the top of your list of labels. This is the one label your Assistant can never-ever click on. They could if they wanted to, but they won’t because they’ve promised they won’t click on it, and you trust them. **This is the one leap of faith in my system. But if you trust your Assistant (see above), the leap won’t feel as big.**
Personally create filters for your loved ones. And perhaps a lawyer or accountant. Filter their messages directly to your “! – Tim Review” label.
But no one else gets the full-filter treatment, not even your most A+ clients, peers, associates who pay you big bucks or have big influence.
This is because you can actually give *better* service to your A+ clients, associates, friends, if you have the team approach (you + Assistant) to your inbox. Sometimes when $500/hr clients have written me with something simple (e.g. scheduling, getting a file from me), Sarah will intervene to get them an appointment (or whatever) as fast as humanly possible.
Handover root access – username and password – to your most basic email account.
NO SECRET EMAIL ACCOUNTS: it sounds fun and effective in the short-term, but sooner or later word gets out and it all falls apart, and you’re back at square one. Take the leap and give your most root-level, ground-zero, no-other-places-to-hide email account.
NOTE: this was a brutal, painful moment-of-truth for me. Sarah had to pry my email inbox out of my hands. You’d swear I was a crack addict clucthing to the last piece o’ rock in the county. Expect this to be difficult and painful. I hope you are pleasantly surprised, and I want to tell it to you straight, it could be emotional.
Looking back, though, my blinding fear was truly ridiculous and childish. Now I wish I would have made the jump years earlier. You’ll feel the same way.
Look over your Assistants shoulder for a 4-5 sessions of 45-60 mins each. Coach them on how to file away messages, and how to answer on your behalf.
You’ll be amazed by session 4 or 5 when they’re really starting to pick it up. Within a week, they’re rolling with you.
TAKE NOTE, THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT: When your Assistant answers, they will answer from your email account, and will always open with:
“Hi Firstname, this is Tim’s Assistant Sarah. I got to your email before Tim did, and I thought you’d appreciate the fastest possible reply, so… (insert whatever the reply is).”
…literally, and legitimately, most recipients will feel tickled to receive such speedy, white-glove service. We’ve received great feedback.
From now on, only check your “! – Tim Review” label.
Obivously, if you need to (Assistant is sick, and/or you’re waiting for a really important and urgent email to arrive), you can easily check the main inbox. But your general rule, now, is only to check your personal “! – Review” label.
You’ll see your Assistant will take care of 90%+ of your email, and you’ll suddenly wonder what the hell you used to do all day.
How good is this system? I stress-tested it twice last year. In Jan 2015 I went to Jamaica for 8 days, with no email, phone, or text contact of any kind. (And no Slack, Project Mgmt, etc… so – NO CONTACT.)
Repeated the test in July 2015 when I went to Hawaii for 10 days. Same disconnection from work, and same amazing outcome – total freedom and relaxation!
The combination of this email system, plus my great Assistant Sarah, plus all the other systems and DMGs I have setup with her, and I enjoyed a blissful tropical holiday, no problems at all. Sarah took care of it all.
And best of all?
When I came home, there was no “Welcome Home” avalanche of 500 emails. Just a few, which took me less than an hour to reply to.
Yes, my friends, Email Inbox freedom truly is at hand.
Onwards and Upwards,
Tim :)
P.S. If you’re interested in learning more about getting your own Assistant to help take over your email inbox, visit www.GreatAssistant.com
There’s two things I hate more than anything in business: waste and entitlement.
Keep reading and you’ll discover one of the most powerful tools ever created to dramatically reduce wasted time, energy, and money.
(And – oddly – hear about Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner?)
This tool works in any business, any industry, any country, any language, online and offline.
It’s a tool I invented called 360 Delegation.
“Earnings” is not top-line revenue or sales. It’s bottom-line profit, what the company keeps after all (or most) expenses are deducted.
Every business has expenses to pay. Service companies are lucky to keep 20% – 50%. Many re-sellers and manufacturers live on razor-thin 1% – 3% margins. 
Let’s say ACME Anvil Corp., makers of anvils to squish the Roadrunner, has a 10% profit margin. When Wile E. Coyote buys an anvil for $10, ACME pays all their expenses (including materials, labour, overhead, taxes, interest, etc) and are left $1 of profit on the all-famous “bottom line.”
ACME Anvil Corp. is like most Entrepreneurs: 1) They want more profit; 2) They believe to boost profits, there’s only one option: sell more anvils!
WRONG.
The other – and usually farrrr more efficient solution – is to reduce expenses one way or another.
And this is where it gets really exciting: a dollar saved goes straight to your bottom line.
That’s right: if ACME Anvil Corp. cuts expenses by $10, their profit increases by the full $10. There’s no 10% ratio. Reducing expense is a 100% profit booster.
And it scales: whether they reduce expenses by $10K or $1M, it’s all pure profit, baby.
Same is true for you. Ask your accountant. They’d be delighted to explain.
Companies everywhere are hemorraghing cash. Yours probably is too.
Occasionally it’s because of one or two big gashes. We hear about those in the news, “In 2015 U.S. Employees Stole $18 Billion at Work,” or a major lawsuit threatening to shut down a company.
What we never, ever hear about, and what is sucking cash out of nearly 100% of business, is the hundreds (thousands!) of tiny little paper cuts all over the place:
360 Delegation will allow you to significantly cut down all this horrendous waste and boost profits. That’s good for everyone – a more financially stable company allows more job security and more rewards for everyone.
I don’t blame you if you’re feeling panic reading this. Let me assuage your fears:
First of all, and this is an important point, my goal is NOT to promote lay-offs. Instead, I’m offering you a tool to help you become so efficient, so effective you become a crucial, indispensible part of the team.
(And I’m inspiring your Entrepreneur towards increased profitability so the company can maximize stability and security, keeping your job alive and well.)
Secondly, 360 Delegation is a shared responsibility, a two-way street. If you regularly receive poor delegation (from your boss, clients, etc) it’s wasting colossal volumes of your time, energy, and possibly money too. Life sucks when you receive poor delegation.
But you needn’t be roadkill, a victim of vague, messy direction your Delegator flung your way. Introduce 360 Delegation (explicitly or implicitly), and request clarification from your Delegator until you’re satisfied 360 Delegation is fulfilled.
Sooooo much time, energy, and money gets wasted in businesses because of:
Ever been in this email death-trap before?
“Are you available Thursday at 2pm?”
“No, can you do Friday at 1pm?”
“No, but I can do Friday at 2pm. Does that work for you?”
“Sounds good. Where should we meet?”
85 emails later, the meeting gets scheduled. Everyone is proud (or exhausted) from being so productive – i.e. busy – answering emails all day.
Really, this email should have looked like:
“I’m available Thursday or Friday at 2pm. Do either work? If not, can you suggest 2-3 alternatives? Also, I’m assuming we’ll meet on Skype. If that doesn’t work, please suggest what works best for you.”
In carpentry, there’s a famous expression, Measure Twice and Cut Once.
All businesses – including young startups – can benefit from this deep wisdom.
Sometimes rework happens because people make mistakes, but sometimes it’s just because they didn’t have enough clarity in the first place.
Either way, they’re forced to back-track and re-work what they’ve already built once before.
Delay of Delivery is crippling in a number of ways:
Remember, 360 Delegation is a powerful tool whether you’re giving or receiving direction.
It’s simply addressing these three elements: 1) Vision, 2) Resources, 3) Definition of Done.
Use it anytime you’re giving or receiving delegation: email, Trello card, Convo or Slack message, heck I’ve even used it when leaving a voice note for my Executive Assistant.
In bullet form, give a few points on what you’d like accomplished. The following list will help prompt you. Don’t have to answer all of these, this is just to inspire your thinking:
List all the resources you think will be needed. Consider:
What is the Acceptance Criteria for this project? What do you, the Delegator, need to see to “sign off” on this project? To say, “Wow, this is successful!”
There you have it, 360 Delegation.
I promise 360 Delegation will feel clunky to use in the beginning, but – believe me – your team will be floored with the clarity you give them.
Soon enough you and your whole team will be richly rewarded by significant increases in speed and efficiency.
And remember – as Leader, your true work is in the first 10% of any project, setting the vision and communicating your overall strategy. Perhaps when you started the company it made sense for you to do the middle 80% of the work, but now you’ve got other people to help with actually doing the work.
Your role has evolved, so now it just makes sense to invest the front-loaded energy into using 360 Delegation so everyone who carries the torch for you sees your vision as clearly as you do.
Onwards and Upwards,
Tim :)
P.S. If you’d like to find out more on how you can get yourself an Assistant to help you with those $15/hr tasks, visit www.GreatAssistant.com
Meet my Executive Assistant, Sarah.
What she does for me is exceeds my wildest expectations.
Earlier this year I spent 9 days in Jamaica. No email, no meetings, just 100% relaxation.
Sarah took care of everything while I was away.
Then, in July I spent 8 days in Hawaii. No email, no project management software, no emergency text messages from anyone.
And it gets better…
When I got back from Hawaii there were only 25 emails for me to answer. No “welcome home” avalanche of 300 – 500 unread emails.
Truly, literally, legitimately, Sarah kept everything rolling while I sipped Mai Thais on the beach.
If this sounds amazing, I confirm it truly is.
Check out this (partial) list of tasks Sarah does for me:
…and this is just a partial list of the regular items. When you add the one-off items (“I’m in New York City, can you get me two tickets to Wicked for tonight?”) the list is truly endless.
Sarah also manages a handful of local and/or personal tasks for me:
Looking back, I can’t fathom how I EVER existed without Sarah.
But it wasn’t always this way…
7 years ago I tried hiring my first-ever assistant.
At first I was excited. But within 3 months I’d blown $10,000 and sadly parted ways with her.
Shit.
I was so disappointed (and frustrated) it was two years before I tried again.
I believed it was either too hard or too expensive to find the right assistant who I could trust with the $10/hr – $20/hr tasks necessary to keep my business rolling.
So I went back to doing it ALL myself, consistently clocking 60-80 hour workweeks.
Little did I know I was riding the razor’s edge of burnout.
Every late night nudged me ever-closer to collapse.
My friends and family grew concerned.
They warned me, “Tim you need to take better care of yourself.”
I politely thanked them for their concern, but silently rebuked, “Meh – burnout could never happen to me.”
But then it did.
In late-2010, I faced a stressful business situation which became the proverbial “straw that broke the camel’s back.”
December 26, 2010, my body’s joints starting swelling uncontrollably. By New Years’ Eve the pain was so intense I couldn’t walk.
After seeing 3 different doctors, the diagnosis came in: a rare, stress-related illness called Erythema Nodosum.
At 28 years old, I was forced to move back into my parents’ home to receive ongoing care. It was so painful to stand, my Mom placed a clothes hamper upside-down in the shower so I could sit and bathe myself.
Unable to work, my business fell apart. My personal and business bank accounts nearly went to zero.
I had NO CHOICE but to figure out a better way to do business.
(I’ve never been afraid of hard work, but – for god’s sake – this was ridiculous. I couldn’t walk!)
I was relieved when the doctors told me I’d recover, but dismayed there was no treatment.
All I could do was rest and wait.
And wait…
And wait.
As I stared at the ceiling day after day, I made myself two promises:
1. Never again would I take my mobility for granted. (Since recovering, I’ve done over 600 Crossfit workouts – proud of that!)
2. Never again would I be a burnout entrepreneur.
As soon as I could move my arms enough to search the internet, I began my comeback.
A few months later I could walk again, and by April 2011 I was back to walking and living on my own.
What a relief.
As I rebuilt my company, I kept my eye on various books and courses on hiring, scaling, and systems.
The next few years I made small attempts at hiring different contractors from around the world for different projects and roles.
I tried local and virtual.
I tried every online job board and job source.
I tried workers from over 5 different countries.
I paid anywhere from $4/hr to $30/hr for different tasks.
I tried part-time and full-time.
Short-term and ongoing.
Slowly, piece-by-piece I was making fewer and fewer errors.
It all clicked when I finally found and hired Sarah, who – to this day – is my personal, Executive Assistant.
I gotta tell you, though, despite TONS of experience with other assistants and contractors, I still had a lot of emotional baggage when I started with Sarah.
I had serious trust issues. (After all I went through, can you blame me?)
I was worried she’d cost waaaay too much money.
I wasn’t sure how to train her.
I didn’t know if I could keep her busy (looking back – this concern is hilarious!)
And the day I gave her control of my email inbox was outright comedy. I’ve never held a death-grip on anything so tightly before. Three times Sarah had to talk me down, assuage my racing mind, reassuring me it would be okay. “Tim, let’s just start with a one-week test and see what happens…”
Through everything, there’s one strategy that’s been my saving grace: starting small.
When I first hired Sarah, she worked just 5 hours per week.
At $15/hour, it was a small, $300/mo commitment, which I could live with.
As our relationship grew, I asked Sarah to work more and more.
It took about a year (plus a criminal record check and a confidentiality agreement), but I soon came to trust Sarah with pretty much everything, including my credit card, my email inbox, and my calendar.
When I look at an average week, Sarah easily takes 10h – 25h per week of work off my plate.
That’s 10h-25h / week I can spend working on the BIG things in my business:
…all of which would NOT be possible if I was stuck working IN my business like I used to. I simply wouldn’t have the time, energy, or money.
(You aren’t making $500/hr yet? No problem. I was at $40/hr when I hired Sarah. She took over the $10/hr – $20/hr tasks, which allowed me to do higher and higher-level tasks until finally I achieved $500/hr. It’s fair to say one of the major reasons I reached $500/hr is because I hired Sarah.)
Since hiring Sarah, I’ve actually hired a handful of other Assistants, some for me, some for my clients.
I’ve distilled the whole process down to a science.
My success rate is over 90% in finding solid Assistants.
So – YES – there is hope.
And there IS a science to it all.
Best of all? Anyone who knows exactly what to do can easily get a world-class assistant in 4-6 weeks.
Super simple.
YES, if…
Are you running a much bigger business, perhaps doing 7- or 8-figures per year?
Multiply everything I’ve said in this blog post by 10! If you don’t have an Executive Assistant, you are completely INSANE. The amount of time, energy, and money you are wasting is truly spectacular, in the worst possible way.
The craziest thing of all? You aren’t alone…
99% entrepreneurs I meet DON’T have Executive Assistants.
And they suffer needlessly, mightily, because of it.
Looking back – alllll the way back – to my first-ever Assistant 7 years ago, I realize all along it was ME who was the problem: I had no idea what I was doing!
I had the wrong expectations – I expected too little and trusted too little.
I looked in the wrong places – I went for easy.
I posted poor job descriptions, offered shitty pay, and did too little on-boarding and training.
Then, once I had them, I was outright incompetent in actually managing them.
(No wonder all those assistants were a total train wreck!)
BUT I LEARNED.
And you can too.
Much, much, MUCH more quickly than I did.
If this all seems overwhelming, I don’t blame you. I’m sure my path sounds long and treacherous!
But it’s only because I was clueless.
Now I KNOW. And I can help you!
Here’s a colossal colossal shortcut…our Great Assistant Program.
If our program isn’t for you, or if you’d like to try hiring on your own, fill in your name and email below and I’ll provide you with a copy of my Great Assistant Guidebook where I address the “Big Six” concerns 99% of Entrepreneurs have when hiring an Assistant.
Onwards and Upwards,
Tim :)